Rachida Dati's gynaecologist 'could be struck off'

The French gynaecologist who helped Rachida Dati, the French justice minister, return to work just five days after delivering her baby by Caesarean section could be struck off the medical register for recounting her stay in his clinic to the press.

Miss Dati refused to name the father of her daughterPhoto: EPA

By Henry Samuel in Paris

7:00AM BST 18 May 2009

Claude Debache, 57, will be questioned by the medical council this week after writing an article in Paris Match, the glossy weekly, about a birth technique that accelerates postnatal recovery and that he said helped the minister get back to work in record time after her January 2 delivery.

Miss Dati, 43, became the subject of intense media interest after refusing to name the father of her daughter, Zohra. Her lighting-quick return to her ministerial duties also raised eyebrows.

Praising her "sweetness and smiles", Mr Debauche supported her decision, saying: "I always encourage women to return to their normal life as quickly as possible if that is their wish and if their health and the baby's permits it. That was Rachida Dati's case." He said it was made easier by his Caesarean technique of parting muscle instead of cutting through it. "That way the postnatal recovery is much quicker . . . and less painful," he wrote.

Irène Kahn-Bensaude, the president of the Parisian medical council, accused him of breaking the Hippocratic oath on doctor-patient confidentiality, and of self-promotion.

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"Everybody knows that Rachida Dati had a Caesarean, but her gynaecologist has no right to talk about it," she said, adding that he would be summoned this week.

She pointed out that the doctor of François Mitterrand, the former president, was struck off the medical register for revealing Mr Mitterrand's prostate cancer in a book eight days after his death. Mr Debauche's fault was not as serious but warranted punishment, she said.